UC Press Blog

By Neal Swain, Subsidiary Rights & Licensing Manager, University of California Press

When publishing a book, you need to obtain permission from the rightsholder in order to reproduce an existing image or text in another work. A rightsholder is someone who either holds the copyright of a work or is authorized by the copyrightholder to hold rights/act on their behalf. 

In practice, this can be very straightforward. If you want to obtain permission to reproduce a photo, the rightsholder is often the photographer. If you find the photograph you want to use on the photographer’s website, you write to them to obtain permission.

But what if it isn’t that simple? A rightsholder is not always readily apparent. For example, if you find the photo you want to reproduce in another book, your first instinct might be to contact the publisher. But chances are good that the publisher is not the rightsholder– and the rightsholder is instead named in a caption below the image or in the appendices at the back of the book. Moreover, the rightsholder in the caption may not be the photographer, but instead a gallery, library, or other source. You may even need permission from multiple sources.

How Does This Work in Practice?

Let’s explore some theoretical situations with the below photo.

©2025 Neal Swain. All rights reserved.

I took this photo, so copyright was vested in me from the moment of creation. If you wanted to reproduce this photo, you would need to write to me and receive permission. 

If I had gallery or agent representation, then you would likely need to contact my representation instead.

But if I had representation and you found this image in a museum, you would need to follow the museum’s policy for reproducing images in their collection. In addition, you would also need to contact my representation. In this hypothetical situation, my representation sold the print to a museum but I kept licensing rights, which means my representation authorizes others to reproduce my art, but the museum has a policy about how you can reproduce works in their collection. This may be handled through a blanket agreement on their website or through a request you initiate.

However, I’m not reaching heights of art world notoriety here. So let’s say instead that it is seventy years in the future and you found this photo in a pile of documents I bequeathed with my estate to a university library. You would need to receive permission both from my estate, if they could be reached, and from the archive. 

Maybe this isn’t a candid photo, and I regularly sell my photography to a stock photo site like Getty Images. You should follow the terms and conditions available on their website to procure a license for a watermark-free copy.

Perhaps instead I was commissioned specifically to include the photo in a larger work by another person or organization. If I took the photo during the course of my normal job duties, or if I transferred the rights via a work-for-hire agreement, I might no longer be the rightsholder, and permission would need to be obtained from the rightsholder of the larger work. But this is not the default and you will need to investigate whether rights were assigned. In cases like this, the rightsholder of the larger work will be able to confirm.

What if I can’t find the rightsholder?

Sometimes it isn’t possible. The rightsholder has died, closed their business, ditched their social media accounts, or merged with other corporations several times to the point that you can no longer trace their business operations. If you’re having a hard time tracking down the rightsholder, or if they are unresponsive to contact, you should document your efforts. You may be able to construct an argument that you have done your due diligence.

What about the subject– what rights do they have?

While the rightsholder holds the copyright of an image, the image subject holds the rights of publicity unless they have waived them. In the US, so long as you have permission from the rightsholder you may be legally in the clear, particularly if you are only using the image in the interior of a book in a way that would not infringe on publicity rights. However, regulations vary around the world and if the photo you intend to use was taken in another country, you will want to research relevant laws. 

There are some other guidelines to keep in mind.

Generally speaking, if you intend to use someone’s photo in a prominent place, such as a cover, you must always seek the subject’s permission. If you have taken photos as part of your research, you should follow the guidelines of your IRB, and if you conducted the research independently, you should seek permission from your interviewees before publishing their image. You should also be conscious of the safety of the subject, particularly if they are not available to consent to the inclusion of their image in your work.

What else should I keep in mind?

As you’ve seen, who can authorize the reproduction of an image can get complicated. In  addition to who holds the rights, you may need to consider additional factors:

Disciplinary norms

Depending on your field, you may need to be mindful of ethical standards about the photographic inclusion of human subjects or representations of certain material objects. 

Fair Use

To include a complete photo in a work without receiving permission from the rightsholder, you need to meet the fair use factors. If you are interested in learning more about fair use, there is  an earlier post by me on the subject here.

Public Domain v. Public Space

Just because a photo was taken in a public space does not necessarily mean that its subject is in the public domain or otherwise exempt from copyright. For example, if you come across a mural and take a careful close-up or reproduction of it for commercial purposes, you will almost certainly need permission from the artist.